Embodiments of the invention are related to preparation of financial documents such as financial statements. A financial statement quantitatively describes finances of a company and includes various types of financial information such as income, cash, etc. related to a company's financial condition. Financial statements are often generated quarterly and annually to provide information about the company to owners, employees, stockholders, potential investors and analysts.
Given the complexities of financial matters and the different uses of such statements by different people, accounting standards have been established to provide a common platform for companies to report accounting or financial information. One known accounting standard is Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which is utilized in the United States. Other countries utilize variations of GAAP or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Further aspects of GAAP are described in the following references, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference as though set forth in full:
http://asc.fasb.org/,
http://asc.fasb.org/imageRoot/18/6896518.pdf, and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generally_Accepted_Accounting_Principles.
While accounting standards provide structure and guidance regarding how accounting information is generated and presented, such structure and guidance result in complexities and complications for accountants who have to generate financial statements that comply with the accounting standard. For example, accounting standards such as GAAP specify that certain sections of a financial statement, such as a header, must contain certain information arranged and expressed in a particular manner. The header content and arrangement may vary depending on various factors such as a corporate or organization structure of the company (e.g., a corporation or partnership), the analysis involved (e.g., whether an “audit” or a “compilation”), the type of statement to be prepared (e.g., an income statement vs. a balance sheet).
For example, the applicable requirement may specify that in an income statement, the title states “Statement of Operations” if a net loss occurred, whereas the title is “Statement of Income” otherwise. As another example, for monthly statements, the first month may state “For the Month Ended Oct. 31st 2010” whereas for subsequent months, the date is stated as “For the 2 Months Ended Nov. 30th 201.” As another example, a title may include a qualifier and state “Statement of Operations—Income Tax Basis” if cash basis is utilized, whereas the “Income Tax Basis” qualifier is not included if cash basis is not utilized.
Remembering the multitude of accounting standard requirements, how requirements apply to various aspects of the financial statement being prepared, and how a header is configured can be complicated, frustrating and time consuming, particularly if the accounting standard changes over time or the accountant prepares financial statement involving different standards and configurations. These issues may result in an accountant not knowing the correct header configuration for a particular financial statement and the financial statement failing to comply with the accounting standard. Further issues may arise when data of the header is to be modified to, for example, reflect a different date, range of dates, time periods, other updates or changes.
Some accountants utilize “string” replacement in which a header includes, for example, a “<<DATE>>” field that is updated or replaced as needed. Strings, however, do not address shortcomings discussed above since they assume that the accountant already knows the accounting standard and correct header configuration. Further, the onus is on the accountant to prepare the header and decide which strings must be utilized.